"I Need a New PC!" 2014 Part 2. Read OP, your 2500K will run Witcher 3. MX100s! 970!

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Switched out the heart and brain on my PC today. Went from a Core i5 2500k, and an Asus P67 Pro to a Core i7 4790k and an Asus Z97 Sabertooth Mark 2. My 2500k was overclocked to 4.4/4.5 ghz. I plan on eventually over clocking the 4790k too, just don't have the time this weekend.

I have to say Microcenter rocks. Got the motherboard from them for 140, and and the 4790k for 280, really can't beat that price.
 
bmoore1321 said:
Congrats ma dude! Looks good.

Question to the experts. At NCIX US, the case I want (Fractal Define R4, Arctic White w/ Window) is $84.99. This is great! Except the shipping shoots it up to a little over $100. But! If I get the cost to over $100 before shipping, it's only 5 bucks! So, what should I add to this to make it an even better deal? I figured a case fan, but the CM JetFlo's I want are out of stock. Any suggestions?
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If you can deal with the color, Noctua fans are great. Outside of that, maybe get a DVD drive or a bluetooth dongle? I'd personally indulge in some cable management stuff like zip ties and velcro just because I like things nice and tidy, though I don't know what NCIX sells in that area.
 
Posting again...


Anyone have any experience changing out the power brick for their monitor?

I don't know what to buy, but I'm pretty sure mine is fucked up

My old one is
Input: 110-240V 1.5A
Output: 24V - 5A

I tried taking my brick to Radio Shack but they couldn't help me
 
Blitzhex said:
Setup my new 350d, gene vii and 4690K. Used psu, gpu, ram and soundcard from my old build.



Running at a measly 4.4ghz atm at 1.2v, 60c on load. 4.5 ghz passes strees tests and runs BF4 on the same voltage, but computer shut down randomly in Wildstar for some reason. 4.8 ghz and above needs >1.32v, but I don't know how I feel about 70+ temps on load at that voltage.
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very sexy! love a neat case.
 
Finally finished. One of the GPUs was DoA so it took another two weeks to complete. Sorry for the potato quality photos.

RaFOWpL.jpg


txfVWhw.jpg


Did a quick benchmark with the FFXIV one.
ik7UG3o.png
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Kinda mad I got the Ti's since the 880s are coming out soon but I think I'll live.
 
K' Dash said:
Look what just came in :D
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Nice

Arc07 said:
Finally finished. One of the GPUs was DoA so it took another two weeks to complete. Sorry for the potato quality photos.



Kinda mad I got the Ti's since the 880s are coming out soon but I think I'll live.
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Looks good. Love the Air 540. You might as well of changed the intake fans up front to Corsair reds as well. Is that back exhaust fan a 140mm or 120mm?
 
Arc07 said:
Finally finished. One of the GPUs was DoA so it took another two weeks to complete. Sorry for the potato quality photos.



Kinda mad I got the Ti's since the 880s are coming out soon but I think I'll live.
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Beautiful. We need more PCs like this, everything neat and pretty.

I'm still waiting for some to buy free sleeved cables from me =(
 
It's that time again.... Woo!

What do you guys think of this setup, following the mATX advice. Last 2 PC's I had were full towers, PC before that was mATX.... I'm going back to Micro.

Motherboard (don't need 2xPCI-16, not gonna run SLI in an mATX anyway)

240GB SSD

1TB HDD

8GB DDR3-1600

i5 4670K

GTX770

750W PSU

and.....

This case. Maybe I'll change it, but I like it. It's not going in my living room anyway so it doesn't have to look like a dvd player. this would be the first time I'm going without a cd/dvd drive, I won't miss it.

All together would clock in at 1231.- CAD before shipping, which is well within my budget of 1500.- To upgrade, maybe go from 4670K to 4770K? GTX770 to 780? Bigger SSD? Not quite sure if I want/need it.

input is very welcome.

Main concerns (aside from upgrading/optimizing the choice of individual components) is whether it'll all fit into the mATX case (which it should?), whether I'll need extra fans (probably, but I can always buy those extra), whether I'll run into overclocking issues on an mATX motherboard/this specific motherboard (I have no idea, google doesn't help much), stuff like that. :) Thanks guys!
 
Hi GAF, put together the PC today and am running into some issues. On CPU-Z, it shows my RAM as single channel and it was underclocked initially until I upped it in the BIOS. The second problem is that my 4690 doesn't seem stable at 4.4ghz at all. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong in the settings. Please help

MB: AsRock Z97 Pro 3
Ram: Gskill ares 1866 2x4GB
CPU: i5 4690K
 
Quick question: How common is coil whine with GPUs and is it a big deal?

Started noticing buzzing during gaming on my GTX760. Thought it was fans at first, but after playing with fan speeds, confirmed it's coil whine from the card.

Is this something you just gotta put up with? Never really experienced it before on my old build.
 
Aurarian said:
Hi GAF, put together the PC today and am running into some issues. On CPU-Z, it shows my RAM as single channel and it was underclocked initially until I upped it in the BIOS. The second problem is that my 4690 doesn't seem stable at 4.4ghz at all. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong in the settings. Please help

MB: AsRock Z97 Pro 3
Ram: Gskill ares 1866 2x4GB
CPU: i5 4690K
Click to expand...
Did you enable the XMP profile on your RAM in the BIOS? This is the best way to achieve the tested speeds.

What settings have you changed to achieve 4.4? Vcore? LLC? If it's unstable it probably needs more vcore but we need more information really.
Erico said:
Quick question: How common is coil whine with GPUs and is it a big deal?

Started noticing buzzing during gaming on my GTX760. Thought it was fans at first, but after playing with fan speeds, confirmed it's coil whine from the card.

Is this something you just gotta put up with? Never really experienced it before on my old build.
Click to expand...
Are you only getting it during scenes where you're rendering crazy amounts of frames? It's common in menus of games etc. and this can be fixed by capping the max framerate with software.
 
Stubo said:
Are you only getting it during scenes where you're rendering crazy amounts of frames? It's common in menus of games etc. and this can be fixed by capping the max framerate with software.
Click to expand...

Mainly during Borderlands 2. Loudest/highest frequency coil whine at 100+ fps, moderate whine at 60fps capped. Quieter, but still noticeable whine at 30fps capped.

Read up on this a bit more, and it seems to be a common issue with the overclocked EVGA gtx 700 series cards. As long as its not indicative of faulty hardware, I guess I can put up with it.
 
Drama Zed Nod said:
Long time lurker but my first "I need a new PC" post.

I've been reading these threads daily over the last 6 months while i saved and purchased parts for my new gaming rig. The last rig i built was 9 years ago (i've been mostly console last gen).

I just wanted to say thanks to all the gurus here sharing awesome info in a friendly and impartial way.

I'll be building next weekend with a friend. I'll post some pics if it doesn't disappear in cloud of smoke.
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Welcome back to PC gaming dude. I switched back 2 months ago and loving every minute. What's going inside your rig?
 
My Gigabyte Windforce 290 OC is running 67 degrees celsius in idle. Is this normal? Or should I do something about it? Or is the airflow in my old Thermaltake Shark cabinet too bad?
 
SHADES said:
Welcome back to PC gaming dude. I switched back 2 months ago and loving every minute. What's going inside your rig?
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I've removed the prices and where i got the parts from (to be honest looking at the total makes me feel woozy). I have everything listed below sitting in boxes with the exception of the ROG Swift. That's paid for and should be with me on the 28th.

Case
Corsair Graphite 600TM Midi Tower Mesh Windowed Case - Black

PSU
Corsair 860W AX860i 80PLUS Platinum High Performance Digital PSU

CPU
Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor

Cooler
Corsair H100i CPU Cooler

MOBO
Asus Z87 MAXIMUS VI FORMULA Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard

Memory
Corsair Vengeance Pro Red 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit

SSD
Samsung 840 EVO 500GB 2.5-inch Basic SATA Solid State Drive

HDD
Western Digital Caviar Black 4TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache HDD

GPU
3GB EVGA GTX 780Ti Dual BIOS Classi

Keyboard
Razer Blackwidow Ultimate 2014 Elite Mechanical USB Keyboard

Mouse
Razer Deathadder 2013 Ergonomic Gaming Mouse

Monitor
27" Asus PG278Q ROG Swift Monitor

OS
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64

Other
Asus ROG Front Base Dual Bay Gaming Panel - Fan & System Controller

Gaming Surface
Razer Destructor 2 Expert Gaming Mouse Mat
 
I think people should stay away from AsRock boards for overclocking nowadays. They have stuck with a Analogue VRM design which is costing overclock potential in a big way.
An example, i got a 4960X to 4.4Ghz @ 1.29v on a Rampage Gene IV. Yet an AsRock Extreme4-M can barely get 4.2Ghz stable at 1.35v. Thats 300Mhz from top Turbo Multiplier with a stock Vcore of 1.20v! Pretty awful.

Asus are using Digital VRM solutions on most of their boards, so people should definitely check them out before assuming the AsRock is going to be better value for money.

I believe only the top Fatality boards from AsRock are using a Digital VRM design. The analogue design just isnt up to the task of handling huge amount of power efficiently, quickly and cleanly.
 
Hi Gaf. A quick question about a possible upgrade... I have a pretty old PC (X2 4800+ / 8800GT Sli...) but I would like to keep my actual PSU (Seasonic M12-600W). I am planning to upgrade to an i5-4690K + GTX 770 and I'm really not sure if it will be enough (considering how much PSU have changed since then).

Any thoughts ? thanks.
 
Hey GAF. 3 questions.

First of all, any idea what's going on with my Google Chrome? It's only started artifacting since I plugged it in the big TV downstairs - it's fine on my monitor. If I Win+D to desktop it's fine, same with any other program - I just watched a movie in XBMC with no issues. If I go in to windowed mode it stays in the exact same place in the window, even if I move it around, so it's not a certain area of the screen or anything.

i5BzuNLSrt1bi.png
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Secondly, what's the best way to clean dust out of a PC? It's on my floor in my room under a desk, and we have a dog - even though there's dust filters, some get through (as can be seen by the line I drew with my finger on the base...). Just turn it off and get some tissues going?

i5BoQPT2XrKJt.JPG
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And third, how do you prevent graphics card droop? It looks worse than it is in this photo (or perhaps not), and I don't think it's damaging either the board or the card, but you can see that my 770 is at an angle.

ibnYphFtZOi19E.JPG
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Thanks!
 
AsianOni said:
Hi Gaf. A quick question about a possible upgrade... I have a pretty old PC (X2 4800+ / 8800GT Sli...) but I would like to keep my actual PSU (Seasonic M12-600W). I am planning to upgrade to an i5-4690K + GTX 770 and I'm really not sure if it will be enough (considering how much PSU have changed since then).

Any thoughts ? thanks.
Click to expand...

That PSU will be fine for such a system, even a GTX 780.
 
Umm I just set the 'Jumper Free' OC setting on my P5N-e SLI to increase by 20% to see what the temperatures were like. It gave me a message saying not to reboot, now about I'm not getting a signal from the machine and I'm not sure what to do.

Should I just assume that I can reboot without any issues and see what's going on? Worst case scenario I reset BIOS the manual way and it just figures stuff out... right? :\

[edit] Took a gamble and restarted. Clock is up, but entering setup sure is taking a while...
 
Stubo said:
Did you enable the XMP profile on your RAM in the BIOS? This is the best way to achieve the tested speeds.

What settings have you changed to achieve 4.4? Vcore? LLC? If it's unstable it probably needs more vcore but we need more information really.
Click to expand...

I got the ram fixed by doing what you said. I updated the bios on it and got an option that let its go to turbo 4, 4.2, 4.4, and 4.5ghz. Should I be doing this manually?
 
Aurarian said:
I got the ram fixed by doing what you said. I updated the bios on it and got an option that let its go to turbo 4, 4.2, 4.4, and 4.5ghz. Should I be doing this manually?
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Motherboard easy overclocking options can give you an idea of what sort of speeds you should be looking to achieve, but they are far from optimal where voltage is concerned. They can often dump far more voltage than is needed by your chip to achieve an overclock.

For a very simplified attempt at manual overclocking, set your vcore to 1.200v, your load line calibration (LLC) to "Turbo" or "Extreme" and your CPU multiplier to 44.

If this works fine, you can look to decrease the voltage until it becomes unstable, then take it up a notch or two - or go for a higher clock speed at higher volts depending on your preference.

If it doesn't boot/isn't stable, you either need to decrease the multiplier or increase the voltage in 0.005v increments.

Test each overclock with a benchmarking tool like prime95 and make sure your temperatures are acceptable. I'd aim for below 85 personally, some go for below 80. Custom coolers obviously allow for a higher clock speed at these temperatures, I can't remember if you mentioned which cooler you have.

At stock you have to be very mindful of the temperatures - use HWmonitor or Realtemp.

Hope this helps! :)
 
ScRYeD said:
Thats one nice Air 540, so many fans in that picture.

Welcome to the Club.
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How are your hard drive temps.

I am getting upper 40's which worry me for HDD's.

Still considering the big Phanteks case as I have 2 drives in an external dock at the moment.
 
yatesl said:
Secondly, what's the best way to clean dust out of a PC? It's on my floor in my room under a desk, and we have a dog - even though there's dust filters, some get through (as can be seen by the line I drew with my finger on the base...). Just turn it off and get some tissues going?
Click to expand...

This little fucker right here is a beast for getting crud out of your PC. Take it outdoors (trust me on this one) and blast it out. Make sure you hold fan blades still when you blast them.

71uBuxyYPGL._SL1500_.jpg
Click to expand...
 
Stubo said:
Motherboard easy overclocking options can give you an idea of what sort of speeds you should be looking to achieve, but they are far from optimal where voltage is concerned. They can often dump far more voltage than is needed by your chip to achieve an overclock.

For a very simplified attempt at manual overclocking, set your vcore to 1.200v, your load line calibration (LLC) to "Turbo" or "Extreme" and your CPU multiplier to 44.

If this works fine, you can look to decrease the voltage until it becomes unstable, then take it up a notch or two - or go for a higher clock speed at higher volts depending on your preference.

If it doesn't boot/isn't stable, you either need to decrease the multiplier or increase the voltage in 0.005v increments.

Test each overclock with a benchmarking tool like prime95 and make sure your temperatures are acceptable. I'd aim for below 85 personally, some go for below 80. Custom coolers obviously allow for a higher clock speed at these temperatures, I can't remember if you mentioned which cooler you have.

At stock you have to be very mindful of the temperatures - use HWmonitor or Realtemp.

Hope this helps! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks, what's the max I should be hitting in regards to voltage?
 
My boss told me to build a new PC for our office, so what CPU / GPU can you recommend for (overall price range for the PC is 1.000 € - 1.200 €): (no overclocking)

- Adobe Suite (Photoshop, After Effects and everything else)
- 3D programs like Maya
- No Gaming



- I'll probably go with a Corsair Graphite MIDI tower (56 €)
- I'll also wait for the Samsung 850 Pro 256GB (159 € currently), should release soon
- 16GB RAM for video editing & 3D (Crucial Ballistix Sport) (115 €)*

- Motherboard / CPU cooler / etc. depends on the CPU



*Any news on DDR4, didn't keep up with this?
 
Been spending a few hours reading around about motherboards and have whittled it down to two - the Gigabyte Z97X Gaming 7 and the ASRock Z97X Fatal1ty.

Which one would you guys go for? The ASRock is obviously a bit cheaper but I want the best (in a given price range), not the cheapest. A lot of reviews seem to point out that the Fatal1ty actually has superior performance to a lot more expensive boards, but then Gigabyte is a bigger name.

1) I'm quite conscious about power consumption and therefore temperature, so efficiency in that regard would be a plus.
2) I place more emphasis on overclocked performance than stock performance, so overclockability is also important

Thanks in advance!
 
Aurarian said:
Thanks, what's the max I should be hitting in regards to voltage?
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I think most people would agree to stick to 1.300v or below for an overclock which you're going to leave in place. It depends on your individual chip what's a worthwhile point.

Eventually you'll hit a speed where adding 100mhz requires a LOT of voltage, and it's up to you to decide if it's worth it or not.
 
Stubo said:
I think most people would agree to stick to 1.300v or below for an overclock which you're going to leave in place. It depends on your individual chip what's a worthwhile point.

Eventually you'll hit a speed where adding 100mhz requires a LOT of voltage, and it's up to you to decide if it's worth it or not.
Click to expand...

I see. I was trying to hit 4.5 on the chip, but it seemed like I was going way high on the voltage to achieve that. I was at 1.285 and it would still crash with Prime 95 after a couple of mins. 4.4 at 1.25V has been running for half an hour now with no crash. Guess 4.4 is where my ceiling is at. Thanks for the help!
 
I was very disappointed with the load times in Wolfenstein: TNO so I bought 16gb of (what i assume to be) better ram and a ssd. To get the full benefit of the ssd, do I have to install the OS on it or can I just move the game files?
 
Arc07 said:
Finally finished. One of the GPUs was DoA so it took another two weeks to complete. Sorry for the potato quality photos.



Kinda mad I got the Ti's since the 880s are coming out soon but I think I'll live.
Click to expand...

Smokey Jr. Build here....

j/k looks awesome. I kinda want this case but still in love with the fractal r4
 
LordAlu said:
The motherboard. You'll need a Z97 one.
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Thraktor said:
Keep the CPU and exchange the motherboard for one with a Z97 chipset.
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So something like this then? http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Produc...e=asus_motherboard_z97-_-13-132-132-_-Product

Here's the rest of the parts that I'm using:

http://www.ncix.com/detail/evga-geforce-gtx770-ftw-4gb-fe-88986-1360.htm

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153167

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233170

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823114041

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236307

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135247

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103077 x2

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121034

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148834

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811139018
 
h#shdem0n said:
I was very disappointed with the load times in Wolfenstein: TNO so I bought 16gb of (what i assume to be) better ram and a ssd. To get the full benefit of the ssd, do I have to install the OS on it or can I just move the game files?
Click to expand...
Upgrading RAM does improve on PC performance but now those days are gone. There is no point getting 16GB or 32GB installed on your PC if you are mainly using it for gaming.

To take advantage of SSD, you need to use it as your primary storage which means your OS, softwares and games has to be installed on SSD.
 
Is this bundle a good deal?


1x GIGABYTE GA-Z97X-SLI LGA 1150 Intel Z97 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard (Model:GA-Z97X-SLI) $123.99

1x Intel Core i5-4690K Haswell Quad-Core 3.5GHz LGA 1150 Desktop Processor BX80646I54690K (Model:BX80646I54690K) $239.99

1x HyperX Fury Black Series 8GB 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model HX316C10FB/8 (Model:HX316C10FB/8) $79.99

Combined Total: $443.97
Combo Discounts: - $33.98
Combo Price: $409.99
 
Hi guys,

I am about to invest in new 3d card gtx780ti and 32gb of ram. I was wondering will my processor i7 920 2.6 ghz be a huge bottleneck?

I may have to just build somwthing new from scratch if it is.
 
Goldenhen said:
Upgrading RAM does improve on PC performance but now those days are gone. There is no point getting 16GB or 32GB installed on your PC if you are mainly using it for gaming.

To take advantage of SSD, you need to use it as your primary storage which means your OS, softwares and games has to be installed on SSD.
Click to expand...

I agree with having as much as you can on a SSD, however, based on how much money you have to spend on a rig, getting a HDD for mass storage is a good idea too. I run my OS and every program that needs to run on One SSD in addition to some games. I have a second SSD for games as well. On top of this, I have a 4tb HDD for mass storage. I mainly use this for games that I don't play that often or have completed.
 
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